Author: erinohare

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Local bakers put their pies to the test

Twenty-three home cooks and chefs entered this year’s Cville Pie Fest competition. Photo by Rammelkamp Foto

“I love the way an empty pie crust shell looks like an opportunity,” says local food writer and amateur baker Jenée Libby. “Are you going to make a sweet pie? A savory one?”

Libby recently made a sweet pie—a sweet potato speculoos pie with a gingersnap crust, to be exact—to nab top honors at this year’s Cville Pie Fest, held on October 9 at Crozet Mudhouse. She was one of 23 home cooks and chefs who submitted two pies apiece—one to be judged on overall flavor, crust, presentation and originality/traditionality; the other to be eaten by less-discerning pie fanatics.

The Cville Pie Fest’s humble beginnings stem from a 2008 “pie down” between Brian Geiger and Marijean Oldham. Each baked two pies and presented them to a panel of three judges. “I get…a tiny bit competitive, so after I won that competition, I decided it would be best to avoid temptation and just judge from then on,” says Geiger, who helped found the official contest in 2009, and notes that getting to taste all of the pies is the best part of being a judge.

But the hardest part is tasting all those pies, he says. “If you’re not careful with portions, those last 10 or so pies can be very dangerous.” 

Libby’s pie, adapted from both Patti LaBelle’s Washington Post sweet potato pie recipe and Emily Hilliard’s Nothing in the House sweet potato speculoos pie, was “a well-balanced pie that tasted fantastic,” Geiger says. Turns out speculoos—spiced shortcrust biscuit—spread blends nicely with sweet potato. Kai and Quinn Fusco took home second place for their local wineberry with blackberries pie, and Priscilla Benjamin’s Banana Treat Pie was named the contest’s best gluten-free offering.

As for Libby, she’s already thinking about next year’s contest. She wants to enter the Lonely Chicago Pie from the movie Waitress (cinnamon, spices, sugar, melted chocolate and smashed berries), or maybe Mollie Cox Bryan’s Lovey-Dovey Red Velvet Pie. She also has an idea for an Arnold Palmer Pie, but hasn’t quite worked out the logistics yet. “That’s the thing with pie,” Libby says. “The only limit is your imagination.”

RECIPE

Sweet Potato Speculoos Pie

2016 Cville Pie Fest Winner

Start to finish: About 3 hours (1 ½ hours active)

Makes one 10-inch pie

Baker’s note: I used organic butter, local sweet potatoes, organic heavy cream, and pasture-raised eggs, and spices from The Spice Diva.

Ingredients

For crust:

2 cups gingersnap crumbs

5 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon sugar

Pinch of kosher salt

 

For filling:

3-5 large orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, scrubbed (enough for 3 full cups of purée)

Pinch of kosher salt

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon ground Vietnamese cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2-3/4 cup of speculoos (cookie butter)

 

Preparation

Crust:

Set oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pour gingersnap crumbs in a bowl and add melted butter, sugar and salt, stirring until well mixed.

Pat the buttery crumbs into a 10-inch pie pan, pressing mixture into the bottom and sides to form a pie crust.

Place in the oven and bake until crust is lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes.

Place on a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature before adding filling.

 

Filing:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat.

Add a generous pinch of salt, then add the sweet potatoes. Reduce heat to medium and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Drain the sweet potatoes, letting them fall into a colander, then run the sweet potatoes under cold water until cool enough to handle. Discard the skins and transfer the cooked sweet potatoes to a mixing bowl.

Use a hand-held electric mixer to blend until creamy and smooth. You’ll need 3 cups for filling; if there’s any excess, scoop it out to reserve for another use. Add the 7 tablespoons of melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, heavy cream, and spices, and beat on medium speed until well incorporated. Pour the mixture into the crumb crust, smoothing the surface.

Warm the speculoos in a spouted measuring cup in the microwave for 20 seconds—no more! It should have the consistency of thick pancake batter, enough to pour easily, but not runny. If it’s too runny, stick the cup in the freezer for 3-5 minutes to firm it.

Now starting from the outside of the pie, pour the cookie butter in a spiral, working inward to the center. Probably two spirals total for a 10-inch pie. Then take a chopstick and drag it through the pie from the outside to the center like you’re making a marbleized cheesecake or brownies. Don’t be afraid, the surface of this pie should turn out rough like the soft rolling mountains we live in.

Bake in the middle rack until a knife inserted in the center of the filling comes out clean yet the filling still jiggles a bit, 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, then cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Recipe provided by 2016 Cville Pie Fest winner Jenée Libby, who adapted it from Patti Labelle’s Sweet Potato Pie (Washington Post) and Emily Hilliard’s Sweet Potato Speculoos Pie (Nothing in the House blog).

Eat your viddles

Look up “viddles” in the Urban Dictionary and you’ll find this definition: “Southern slang for vegetables or any other food that gives vital nutrients.” It’s precisely what siblings Shannon and Rob Campbell are offering at Croby’s Urban Viddles, newly opened in the Southside Shopping Center, next to Food Lion. Chef Shannon and manager Rob say they always wanted to have a restaurant together, one inspired by a shared love of family dinners. Croby’s serves up rotisserie chicken and pork plus Southern-inspired entrées and sides with a healthy twist: Think baked then flash-fried chicken tenders and cauliflower mash in lieu of deep-fried chicken tenders and mashed potatoes. Everything is made in-house. Entrées cost around $10 each, and kids’ meals, served with a side and a cookie, are $5. Croby’s also offers set daily specials, such as guava barbecue baby back ribs on Wednesdays and chicken pot pie on Thursdays.

Contact Erin O’Hare at eatdrink@c-ville.com.

Categories
Living

Greenberry’s Coffee Co. goes to Japan

“Getting to know your customers beyond their transaction is the part of Greenberry’s that [we] hope to embody most,” Brandon Bishop says about opening a Greenberry’s Coffee Co. in Japan. Photo by Brandon Bishop

Roughly translated, the Japanese word “kodawari” means a relentless devotion to practicing an art or a craft, where one is sensitive to even the smallest details. It’s the thing that has most surprised Brandon Bishop, Greenberry’s Coffee Co.’s director of franchise operations, about the employees at the local coffee roaster’s new location in Japan.

Greenberry’s café in Takarazuka City in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, is set to open October 13 just down the street from the Takarazuka Revue, a popular Japanese all-female musical theater troupe—“think Broadway,” Bishop says. Greenberry’s Japan will carry the shop’s core menu (coffees and espresso drinks) but “with certain flavor adjustments made for Japanese customers’ palates.”

Bishop points out that vending machine coffee has reigned supreme in Japan for many years, but the country is moving towards “kodawari” for the art of brewing a delicious cup of joe. American specialty coffee franchises like Blue Bottle Coffee and Verve Coffee Roasters are popping up all over Tokyo, says Bishop. Greenberry’s Japanese franchise partners “are hoping to bring the new wave of coffee shop experience to Japan, creating an environment of customer education in specialty coffee and the home-away-from-home feeling that Greenberry’s has honed over its 25 years.”

Virginia Distillery Co.’s Commonwealth Collection

Looking for a whiskey to sip by the fire through the colder months? The Virginia Distillery Co.’s got you covered with its new Commonwealth Collection. According to the company’s website, each Commonwealth Collection release will feature a different finish by a local Virginia winery, cidery or brewery. The first release, a cider barrel-matured Virginia Highland Malt Whisky, will be available later this month. It features Virginia Highland Malt Whisky cask-finished in Potter’s Craft Cider barrels, promising notes of vanilla, apple and pear. Enthusiasts can get an early dram at a the distillery on October 21 (tickets are required); beginning October 22, the whisky will be for sale at the visitor’s center in Lovingston, and at “very select stores throughout Virginia and D.C.” by late October.

Bold addition

Bold Rock Hard Cider’s fall/winter seasonal flavor is on its way to a refrigerator case near you. On November 1, the cidery will release Bold Rock Blood Orange, its first unfiltered cider, says brand development manager Traci Mierzwa. It’s made from a blend of blood orange juice and locally harvested Blue Ridge apples “featuring the light and refreshing apple cider finish that Bold Rock devotees have come to expect, coupled with the crisp tartness and tangy citrus brightness of blood orange,” according to a press release.

They got our hopes up…

Last week, an article surfaced on breakfast and brunch website Extra Crispy with the headline “The Best Bagels in the World Are in Charlottesville, Virginia.” We agree. But the article got people talking once again about that onetime April Fool’s joke claiming that Bodo’s plans to turn one of its locations into a 24-hour operation. Bodo’s co-owner John Kokola confirms that Bodo’s is not—we repeat, Bodo’s is NOT—planning a 24-hour operation at any of its locations. (We’re bummed about it, too.)

The last last call

After two and a half years brewing and serving beer on West Main Street, C’Ville-ian brewery has closed. This past Saturday, October 8, bartenders hollered the final last call at the nanobrewery that owner Stephen Gibbs had hoped would be, among other things, a gathering place for local military veterans. While operating the brewery has been a “wonderful experience, it’s time for me to move on to other opportunities,” Gibbs says. “I want to say thank you to everyone for their support; it’s been a pleasure serving you.”

E-mail food and drink news to Erin O’Hare at eatdrink@c-ville.com.

Categories
Living

Author traces rich history of Virginia barbecue

Locally, both BBQ Exchange (owner Craig Hartman pictured) and Brian Ashworth’s Ace Biscuit & Barbecue are doing Virginia barbecue right says author Joe Haynes. Photo by Eric Kelley

Barbecue is like religion. There are many different styles—Texas, North Carolina, Kansas City, Memphis—and people tend to think that their way is the right way, the best way. People argue over which is most delicious, the original, the one true barbecue.

For years, “every time we’d say we do Virginia barbecue at our restaurant, people would laugh at us” as if there were no such thing, says Craig Hartman of Gordonsville’s BBQ Exchange. Virginia is known for its ham and bacon and it’s salting and smoking processes, Hartman says.

Not for much longer. Joe Haynes, a tech consultant and curious lifelong barbecue fan, has spent the past six years uncovering the rich history of Virginia barbecue and giving Virginia barbecue cooks like Hartman fuel for the fight against the naysayers.

In fact, Haynes declares in his heavily-researched book, Virginia Barbecue: A History, what we call Southern barbecue was born in Virginia’s Tidewater region in the 17th century.

It did not begin in the Caribbean, he says (though a 2013 Smithsonian Magazine article claims as much). In the 15th century, Christopher Columbus was the first European to observe and report the Taino Indians’ “barbacoa” cooking technique, but “barbecue didn’t need a European to witness it for it to start,” he says.

“Barbecue—the cooking technique where you take meat, put it over coals and slowly cook it for hours—is ancient,” Haynes says. Nobody really knows where it started, though Haynes suspects it started in Africa, spread to the Middle East and Asia, then the ancestors of Native Americans brought it to the Americas.

Haynes’ research shows that Powhatan Indians threw festivals (pow wows) where they’d cook hunted game (venison, rabbits, squirrels, birds) for hours over beds of coals. When the Virginia settlers arrived, they were dependent on the Powhatan for food. The colonists brought cookbooks that included instructions on how to cook meat on grills using vinegar, salt, pepper and a little butter—the basic components of a Southern barbecue sauce, Haynes says—and showed that basting method to the Indians.

As Virginians migrated they took barbecue to the Carolinas and elsewhere.

Haynes didn’t set out to prove that Southern barbecue as we know it started in Virginia, but that’s where the sources led him. “It’s not like I’m pulling this out of thin air,” he says. Washington Post barbecue and grilling columnist Jim Shahin declared Virginia Barbecue “as deeply researched as any barbecue book I’ve read.”

It’s the sauce and, to some extent, meat choice, that defines a region’s barbecue, and here in Virginia there are four distinct styles. Southside and Tidewater’s tangy tomato- and vinegar-based sauces usually contain a hint of mustard.

The Shenandoah Valley and mountain region’s Virginia-style barbecue chicken is typically smothered in a vinegary sauce seasoned with sweet herbs, garlic, salt and black pepper and, occasionally, celery seed.

Northern Virginia’s tomato-based, herbed sauces sometimes include fruit and tend to be sweeter than other area varieties.

Our own central Virginia and Piedmont regions offer full-bodied, richly spiced tomato sauces, usually with cloves, sassafras and ginger in addition to salt, pepper and vinegar, Haynes says.

Locally, both BBQ Exchange and Brian Ashworth’s Ace Biscuit & Barbecue are doing Virginia barbecue right, in examples such as Ace’s Virginia red and BBQ Exchange’s Hogfire and Colonial bacon sauces.

Ashworth, who didn’t intend to make authentic Virginia barbecue (he just wanted to make good, smoky barbecue, he says), is glad to be a part of the long history that Haynes has brought to light. “If we’re not rebuilding a name for Virginia barbecue, we’re building the name now,” Ashworth says. “It’s cool to be part of that.”

TASTE TEST

Dying to taste authentic Virginia barbecue for yourself? Here’s what to order.

Ace Biscuit & Barbecue

Virginia red sauce: Brian Ashworth makes his own tomato base for this sauce that Joe Haynes calls “just amazing.” Ashworth says it was inspired by Coca-Cola sauces he’s had further south, and it also includes red onion, root beer, fresh ginger and “choice spices.”

Brisket: is not a traditional Virginia barbecue meat (that’d be pork), but Ashworth cooks brisket—a Texas barbecue staple—Virginia-style, directly on the coals (which Ashworth sources himself from trees on his Barboursville farm).

BBQ Exchange

Hogfire sauce: A classic southside Virginia barbecue sauce, says Haynes.

Colonial bacon sauce: “A whole lot of onions, a whole lot of bacon,” and similar to a sauce Haynes found in a book of colonial Virginia recipes.

Categories
Arts

First Fridays: October 7

Sherrie Hunt’s pieces, on display at Chroma Projects Gallery’s new space, focus on mankind’s connection with nature. Photo by Martyn Kyle

First Fridays

October 7

“I have immense passion for nature and the well-being of our planet, from the tiniest of creatures and flora to the oceans and forest,” says Scottsville artist Sherrie Hunt. “The beauty and mystery of nature feeds my soul and awakens my creative spirit endlessly. On a daily basis, I’m reminded of its fragility,” she says. “I am an advocate of species in jeopardy.”

Most of Hunt’s oil paintings, photography and photographic montage pieces are laced with metaphor—some obvious, some less so—for humankind’s connection with nature. The floating flora and fauna remind the viewer that without attention and care, nothing is secure. By not fully finishing some of the forms, Hunt paints a frightening ghost of extinction into view. In one oil painting, “The Seer,” an intelligent hawk—Hunt’s harbinger for endangerment and extinction—looks into the distance as his form dissolves into the space behind him.

Find Hunt’s work in the new Chroma Projects Gallery space, nestled up against the west side of the Paramount Theater—ascend the short set of exterior stairs and continue to the second floor, then follow a long corridor. Keep an eye out for letterpress artist quotes to show you the way.

Art on the Trax 5784 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Reoccurring Images,” featuring collage by Rhonda Roebuck.

FF The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative 209 Monticello Rd. “Looking Forward While Looking Back,” a 10th anniversary retrospective of the Bridge PAI. 5:30-9pm.

FF Chroma Projects Gallery 201 E. Main St. “Floating Worlds,” featuring paintings, photographs and installation pieces by Sherrie Hunt. 5-7pm.

FF City Clay 700 Harris St. #4. An exhibit featuring paintings and Mishima ceramics by Jane Angelhart. 5:30-7:30pm.

FF CitySpace 100 Fifth St. NE “@tribute,” featuring collaborative self-portraits of 17 Computers4Kids youth, made with photographer Eze Amos. 5-7pm.

FF C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St. “Creations from my Head and Heart,” featuring knitted sweaters and innovative collage by Diane Goodbar. 6-8pm.

C’ville Coffee 1301 Harris St. An exhibit featuring acrylic paintings of landscapes, food and local subjects by Caroll Mallin. Through October 30.

Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Reclaiming Independence, Inspiring Craftsmanship,” featuring wood furniture and decorative items by Jacob Strong of StrongWood Designs.

FF Fellini’s #9 200 Market St. “Digital Art,” featuring digital prints by Perry Fitzhugh. 5:30-7pm.

The Fralin Museum at UVA 155 Rugby Rd. “The Great War: Printmakers of World War I,” featuring prints depicting combat scenes in France and the Near East; “New Acquisitions: Photography,” featuring work from Danny Lyon, Shirin Neshat and Eadweard Muybridge; “Oriforme” by Jean Arp; and “On the Fly,” featuring sculpture by Patrick Dougherty.

FF GallerIX 522 Second St. SE. “Inspiring Connections,” featuring paintings of local artists, photographers, musicians and other performers by Aimee McDavitt. 5-7pm.

FF The Garage 250 First St. N. “Garage Sale,” featuring oil and watercolor paintings of second-hand items by Sharon Shapiro. 5-7pm.

FF Graves International Art 306 E. Jefferson St. “Masters of Contemporary Art,” featuring limited-edition original prints, exhibition posters, stone lithography, drypoint etching and more by Ellsworth Kelly, Salvador Dalí, Georges Braque, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Sam Francis, Philip Pearlstein, John Chamberlain, Andy Warhol, Gerald Laing, Joan Miró, Josef Albers and more. 5-8pm.

FF Kluge-Ruhe Collection 400 Worrell Dr. “On the Fabric of the Ngarrindjeri Body,” drawings, prints and photography by Australian aboriginal artist Damien Shen. 5:30-7:30pm.

FF Les Yeux du Monde 841 Wolf Trap Rd. “Annie Harris Massie: Lightness” featuring landscape paintings that explore the qualities of light that reveal and obscure form. 1-5pm.

Loving Cup Winery 3340 Sutherland Rd., North Garden. An exhibit of photography, pottery and paintings by the BozArt Fine Art Collective. Through October 30.

Martha Jefferson Hospital 500 Martha Jeffer-son Dr. “River,” featuring paintings by Linda Staiger of the natural landscapes of the James and Rivanna rivers on the First Floor Gallery. Bold and texture landscape paintings by Carroll Mallin hang in the main lobby floor.

FF McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. “Tablet & Cloud: Pilgrims in Cyberspace,” featuring work by Rosamond Casey in the Sarah B. Smith Gallery; “Flight,” featuring McGuffey member artists in the Lower North and South Hall galleries; “Fiber Transformed,” featuring work by contemporary Virginia fiber artists in the Upper North and South Hall galleries.

Mudhouse Coffee 213 W. Main St. “Water Like Memory,” featuring paintings that explore the patterns of surface water as reflections of states of mind and memory by Susan Willis Brodie. Through November 1.

FF Neal Guma Fine Art 105 Third St. NE. Fall show featuring work by Holly Andres, Julie Blackmon, Markus Brunetti, Julie Cockburn and Lois Conner. 5:30-7:30pm.

FF New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St. An exhibit of oil paintings by Warren Boeschenstein. 5:30-7pm.

Scottsville Center for Arts and Nature 401 Valley St., Scottsville. “Another Day at the Office,” featuring Billy Morris’ photographs of the bucolic daily grind.

FF Second Street Gallery 115 Second St. SE. “Bitter, Sweet and Tender,” featuring photography, currency, sculpture and textile by Richmond-based artist Sonya Clark. 5:30-7:30pm.

Shenandoah Valley Art Center 26 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. An exhibit featuring the artwork of the BozArt Fine Art Collective.

FF Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St. “Landscapes Near and Far,” featuring water-colors by Phyllis Koch-Sheras. 6-8pm.

FF Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Post Medium,” featuring work by UVA Aunspaugh Fifth Year Fellow Sandy William IV that challenges traditional art practices. 5-7pm.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church 717 Rugby Rd. An exhibit featuring the work of painter Deborah Rose Guterbock and painter and comics artist A.I. Miller.

FF Welcome Gallery at New City Arts 114 Third St. NE. “Look, Make & Do,” an exhibit featuring drawings, paintings, collages and collaborative installations by Emma Crockatt and Ryan Trott. 5-7:30pm.

FF WVTF & Radio IQ Studio Gallery 218 W. Water St. “Peace Doves,” featuring oil paintings and photography by Zuhal Feraidon. 5-7pm.

Categories
Arts

The Ante Room bets on local hip-hop with new showcase

Louis “Waterloo” Hampton of The Beetnix is on the bill for The Ante Room’s next Round Robin Hip-hop Showcase on Thursday. Eze Amos

Go to a hip-hop show in Charlottesville and you’ll see a rapper spitting lines to a crowd full of people giving him their full attention. They’ll be standing there, hipsters and hip-hop heads alike, stroking their chins, heads nodding to the beat. “They’re listening to every single word,” and when the rapper “says something dope, people fucking cheer,” says Mike “Mike Bizarro” White, a local rapper who performs as one-half of the duo Cognitive Dissidents.

“People go because they admire the craft, both in the beat production and the lyricism. It’s almost like going to see beat poetry,” White says. “Everybody’s there wearing their heart on their sleeve,” and with events like the newly established Round Robin Hip-Hop Showcase at The Ante Room, local rap artists are being given more chances to gain new audiences.

Jeyon Falsini, who owns and runs The Ante Room, noticed that rappers brought in by local promoters to perform during the last hour of his venue’s dance parties had more talent to share. The rappers needed a stage to themselves, so he started building hip-hop bills.

“I was noticing that rappers’ fans that came out for just their one friend wouldn’t stay to see the other acts,” says Falsini. After hosting a singer-songwriter round robin, where each artist played a song before passing the mic to the next artist, Falsini thought a similar format would work well for hip-hop. Each rapper performs a short set before passing the mic to the next MC. The mic makes two full rounds—each rapper performs twice.

Falsini expects the performers to come prepared, to know their lines and spit them out over their backing tracks—“warts and all”—no lip-syncing. “The energy, ‘the vibration,’ as I’ve heard it put, comes from performing live,” Falsini says.

The next showcase takes place on October 6 and features three individuals and one duo, all from Charlottesville, with each offering a slightly different musical style (it’s a broad genre, after all) and a different perspective on life. But they all agree on two things: Hip-hop is important, and it’s on the rise in Charlottesville.

Danny Lz, one of the youngest rappers on the scene, delivers straight-up hip-hop, with rhymes and beats heavily influenced by ’90s rap (think Jay-Z and Nas). He tends to tell stories about himself, and about his life, to relate to his audience. The genre, he says, “keeps your ear to the streets, to what’s going on in the world.”

That’s precisely what drew Louis “Waterloo” Hampton, member of The Beetnix and one of the scene’s most established lyrical artists, to hip-hop when he was a teen in the ’90s. “At the time, I didn’t have a dad in the house, and I was the big brother, so I didn’t really have anybody to look up to,” he says. “Music let me know what was cool, what was hip. It let me know what to keep my eyes peeled for, gave me the advice that I needed.” Plus, it “let me know it was okay to be who I was.”

Hampton cites Ice Cube’s “Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself,” off of 1992’s The Predator, as particularly important to him. Not only was it musically and lyrically fantastic, it offered good advice: “You better check yo’ self before you wreck yo’ self,” Ice Cube insists, warning of the pitfalls of the street.

“Ice Cube really spoke about the ills of the system and police brutality,” Hampton says, sighing heavily before pointing out that incidents of police brutality toward black men is, 24 years later, still an issue. Hip-hop, he says, can provide sound guidance.

For White, who played in jam bands before forming Cognitive Dissidents with Phil “dogfuck” Green, rap is an emotional and mental release that’s open to audience interpretation. When he spits “My thoughts sink distantly, consistent as barflies / Stand guard for epiphany, turn rosary to barbed wire,” he expects the listener to find personal meaning in his lines. “It’s not up to me what my words mean,” he says. He’s all about metaphor and simile, allusion and allegory.

Green, on the other hand, goes for specificity. He raps: “Your mom’s so white, she said ‘Hey’ I said ‘Hey.’ / I said ‘Goodbye’ and she said ‘Namaste.’ / Then she dove in her Volvo and drove on her way / To practice her Spanish down at Chipotle. / Your mom’s so white she almost makes a white dude’s pay / But if she stayed at home and raised you then that’d probably be okay / and Hannity and company, they wouldn’t have shit to say about the welfare state of America’s decay.” He calls out his own whiteness, gender and race politics, big business and more all in a few lines.

Lalo Lloyd, who lived in Washington, D.C., New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia before moving to Charlottesville about a year ago, blends old-school hip-hop with a little R&B. “I base everything off an emotion,” he says, beats and lyrics alike. His songs are about relationships. As a child, he watched his stepfather abuse his mother; he’s lost friends and family members to drugs, to disease. “Most of it is stuff I’ve seen with my own eyes,” he says. “When people listen to [my music], I want them to feel like they know me. What you see is what you get; there’s no smoke and mirrors here.”

In addition to The Ante Room, Magnolia House, Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar and Milli Coffee Roasters host local hip-hop shows. But while the scene is emerging, it can only grow and deepen if people start to come to shows and if more venues begin supporting the hip-hop community, says White, who insists Charlottesville needs that musical diversity.

But no matter what, “Hip-hop is never going to go away,” Hampton says. “It’s a part of music—it’s a genre of music that’s in every city, everywhere you go. So, to have hip-hop in Charlottesville is totally normal,” he says. Not only that, but it’s necessary. “There are kids, who grew up like I did, who need that outlet like I did,” kids from all backgrounds who need their version of The Predator, he says. Maybe he—or another local rapper—will be the one to provide it.

Contact Erin O’Hare at arts@c-ville.com.

Categories
Living

Feast! pairs up with Blenheim Vineyards

Red Knierim and Matt Wyatt performed for patrons at Feast!’s rooftop wine garden on Saturday, October 1. The pop-up space will host wine tastings from Blenheim Vineyards on Fridays and Saturdays through October 22. Rammelkampfoto

There’s a rooftop wine garden in town, but blink and you’ll miss it.

On Fridays from 4-7pm and on Saturdays from 1-6pm, now through October 22, Feast! is hosting a pop-up wine garden with Blenheim Vineyards in the Main Street Market tower, a cozy, open space with bistro tables, padded benches and some excellent views of the city.

Tracey Love of Blenheim says the vineyard approached Feast! about doing the pop-up. It “was based on wanting our wines to be easily accessible and approachable to folks visiting from out of town and for those living in Charlottesville,” she says. “Even though our actual tasting room is only 15 minutes south of town, that is sometimes too far for people that don’t have means of transportation or time to make the trek.”

Feast! owner Kate Collier was eager to utilize the space, which Feast! has had for about a year and a half and uses for gift box production during the holiday season. “We felt bad hiding it from the public for so long,” she says.

Rooftop wine sippers have their choice of Blenheim’s chardonnay, Painted White (a blend of chardonnay, viognier and sauvignon blanc), merlot or cabernet franc. The wines cost $6 per glass, and between $17 and $25 for a bottle. A tasting flight of all four wines costs $6, and you can bring your glass to Blenheim’s tasting room at a later date for a free glass of wine, Collier says.

Customers can purchase food at Feast!—salads, sandwiches, cheese and charcuterie—to take up to the garden, or you can buy small snack packs, such as Virginia cheese straws, dark chocolate with cranberries, roasted Marcona almonds and tart cherries, or wasabi crisps with Virginia peanuts for between $4 and $8 at the bar.

The setup is temporary, but Collier says that other vineyards and cideries have expressed interest in doing something similar at Feast!’s rooftop garden. Stay tuned for future pairings.

Special delivery

Keevil & Keevil Grocery owner and chef Harrison Keevil loves Champion Brewing Company beer so much he’s made four sandwiches—available exclusively for delivery from his store to Champion beginning Thursday, October 6—to pair with it. “I wanted to highlight the amazing things the Champion brew team is doing,” Keevil says, and make food that would “bring out the essence of the beer.”

He’s made a chicken tikka masala burrito with Carolina gold rice to pair (if you choose) with the Missile IPA; a beer-braised sausage sandwich with housemade beer mustard and sautéed onion to go with the Shower Beer; a braised beef sandwich with carrot salad and beer cheese for the Black Me Out Stout; and a roasted chicken wrap with Carolina gold rice, romaine and ranch to pair with any of the lighter beers on tap. Keevil is currently developing a vegetarian sandwich option as well.

At Champion you can call in or text your order along with your name, and you’ll have your $10 sammy within an hour—Keevil & Keevil will deliver on the half hour, from 30 minutes after Champion opens until 7pm Mondays through Saturdays.

These sandwiches are exclusive to Champion, but Keevil & Keevil will soon offer hot in-house sandwiches—such as bahn mis and burgers.

Send your food and drink tips to Erin O’Hare at eatdrink@c-ville.com.

Categories
Living

Oktoberfest events abound in Charlottesville

Firefly staff and customers are encouraged to don their dirndls and lederhosen for the stein-hoisting competition Thursday, September 29. Photo by Martyn Kyle

It’s Oktoberfest season, and breweries, restaurants and bars all over town are celebrating one of the world’s largest festivals, which has its origins in an 1810 mid-October royal marriage in Munich. So dust off your dirndls and lederhosen, Charlottesville, and get thee to a bierhaus.

Kardinal Hall

Oktoberfest “is in the nature and history of this place, of getting everyone together to celebrate,” says Chris Cornelius, general manager at Kardinal Hall, where they’re rotating many German beers through the taps during an ongoing celebration. You’ll find the approachable Bitburger German lager, Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest-Märzen, Weihenstephaner Oktoberfestbier and Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen, a classic German hefe that Cornelius says is the best he’s ever tasted. “It has beautiful balance, not too banana, not too clove.”

Kardinal Hall will hold a stein-hoisting contest Saturday, October 1, before wrapping up its Oktoberfest on Tuesday, October 4, with a $30 per plate all-you-can-eat dinner of bratwurst, sauerkraut, spaetzel, pretzels and gingerbread (read more about Kardinal Hall’s German food on page 49).

Starr Hill Brewery

Starr Hill offers German-style brews all year round—The Love Hefeweizen and Jomo Vienna-Style Lager—but this year’s Oktoberfest afforded brewmaster Robbie O’Cain the chance to develop two new ones, a tart Berliner Weisse and the Basketcase American Helles Lager. Those beers, plus The Festie Oktoberfest Lager, Helles Bock and Warehouse Pils, will be on tap for the brewery’s Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday, October 1, from noon to 7pm.

For the beer nerds, Starr Hill’s brewers will conduct a “bier session” on the history of German brewing techniques and beer styles. And if German food is your thing, check out the audience-decided bratwurst battle, where three local chefs will go knife-to-knife in hopes of being crowned brat king of the Blue Ridge.

Tickets are $17 and include three tokens, each redeemable for one beer or food serving.

Firefly

Firefly’s 12-day Oktoberfest celebration ends Oct. 2, but there’s still time to taste some official Munich Oktoberfest beers—such as the Hacker-Pschorr Hacker-Festzelt and Pschorr-Bräurosl and the Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier. General Manager Brett Cassis says they’ve also got some märzens on tap from Seven Arrows, Devils Backbone, Left Hand, DuClaw and others, and will have schnitzel, sausages, cabbage and pretzels on the menu, plus a stein-hosting contest on Thursday, September 29.

Blue Mountain Brewery

Over the next couple of weeks, pair Blue Mountain’s 13.Five Ofest lagerbier with some schnitzel, gulasch or a pretzel. If you’re lucky enough to snag a seat on Saturday, October 1 or 8, you can devour your Bavarian-inspired fare to the tune of a traditional oompah band. Dying to add to your Oktoberfest memorabilia collection? Blue Mountain’s Steal the Stein Night is Thursday, October 6.

Michael’s Bistro & Tap House

Michael’s keeps things a bit more traditional, with lederhosen- and dirndl-clad servers dishing out dinner specials such as wild boar and elk sausage alongside official Munich Oktoberfest beer offerings. “When you drink a märzen or a wiesn [this week], you know you are sharing that experience at that moment with people all over the world,” says owner Laura Spetz.

Categories
Arts

C’ville’s Chris Alan delivers some seriously funny shit

Local comedian Chris Alan takes top billing at the LYAO Showcase January 20 at The Southern. Publicity photo

In May, Ruckersville-based comic Chris Alan found himself backstage at Amy Schumer’s stand-up comedy show at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York.

Alan, a Rochester native, was there supporting his pal Mark Normand, Schumer’s opening act that night.

The three comics chatted a bit in the green room, but Alan says he was too nervous to say much to Schumer (she’s the biggest active comic he’s met, after all). Alan, who has been in the Air Force for 18 years, says, “The military came out of me. I popped out of my chair and was standing there all tall, calling her ‘Ms. Schumer.’ She told me to stop it and just talk to her like a comedian.”

Right before the show started, Alan saw Schumer whisper something to Normand, then she looked at Alan and asked, “So, do you wanna do five minutes?”

“Fuck yeah!” Alan told her, and moments later he was on stage in front of a sea of people. He had no prep. No warning. Nothing but his jokes.

In those moments, Alan says he thought of all the shows where there were more empty seats than filled ones, the nights when he and his fellow comics made no money.

But this time, he killed it. “All the jokes hit: boom, boom, boom,” Alan says, snapping his fingers. He told his hummus joke, his black man driving a Prius joke (helps save money on gas for all those drive-by shootings). He gave some love to his high school and trashed its longtime rival.

Five minutes goes quickly and, before he knew it, he was backstage again, shaking like a leaf, calling his mom, fending off tears, getting Twitter and Instagram notifications from new fans in the audience. He recalls Schumer’s people telling him he looked “amazingly too comfortable” on stage—and he was. “I was just ready,” he says.

Chris Alan
The Ante Room
September 29

For the past year and a half, Alan has worked the L.Y.A.O. comedy showcase in Charlottesville—opening for national comedians such as Kyle Kinane and Sasheer Zamata—and is growing the local comedy scene with monthly open mic nights at the Southern, Holly’s Deli and, most recently, The Ante Room. Usually they’re “show up and go up” events, where budding comics sign up and Alan creates a roster based on what he knows they’re capable of. There are a few up-and-comers in town, he says, like Winston Hodges, Ken Edwards and T.J. Ferguson.

Alan, who also hosts the “Negro Please” podcast, says there’s been great support for the scene, from small but dedicated audiences and booking agents such as Danny Shea at the Southern and Jeyon Falsini at The Ante Room. He’d like to see more people come out to perform and watch…and, let’s face it, Charlottesville could stand to loosen up a bit.

Alan’s been prepping for that Schumer moment since he was a kid. “I grew up in the inner city,” he says. “I was fortunate enough to have both my parents, and that was very rare, to see an entire black family in the city, so I got picked on a lot.” On top of that, he went to private school. “In my neighborhood, I was the rich kid, but when I got to school, I was the poor black kid. I wasn’t black enough for [my neighborhood], but I was too black for the rich white kids,” he says. (This disparity extends to current struggles in the comedy scene, where he often feels “not black enough for the black shows” and “too black for the white shows.”)

Alan learned to use humor as a social inroad. “I would lash out and talk a lot of shit, just hurtful stuff,” he says. “I had bad teeth and glasses, I didn’t have the cool clothes. I was the worst fighter, the most unathletic dude, so that’s how I learned to be funny—it was a defense thing.” By high school, Alan realized that if he lightened it up, his sharpness could actually make people laugh.

He cracked up his Air Force bunkmates by mimicking drill sergeants, and by the time he got into comedy, in Las Vegas in 2010, he knew he’d found his people, his place.

“I want to be funny because I want people to listen…I want to make them think,” Alan says. Parenting jokes, marriage jokes, jokes about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, feminism and bigotry, Black Lives Matter and more—he’s not drawing any lines in the sand. (He won’t insult his wife or her family, though.) He wants his audiences to consider experiences different from their own—it’s why he jokes about race, gender, politics and things that, for all of our many differences, are shared human experiences.

Like bathroom farts, the thing that Alan finds most hilarious of all. “That’s such a vulnerable moment for anybody,” he says, giggling. “You could be the most powerful person in the world or the poorest person in the world.”

Alan believes that good comedians develop huge followings because “people want to hear what comics have to say. I think that comics are the voice of the people. It’s not your politicians, it’s not your state representatives. It’s frickin’ comedians,” Alan says. Comedy gives performers a license to say what others cannot say—or are afraid to say—and in a public space, no less. “We need comedy,” he says.

But “if you wanna see some seriously funny shit,” he tells me while peering over the rims of his thick-framed glasses, “come to the Waffle House with us after a show. We’re there until like, 2 o’clock in the morning, just comic-on-comic. That’s the real show.”

Categories
Living

Water Street replaces Tempo

Ashley Sieg Williams (above) and Brice Cunningham are bringing a new restaurant concept to the former Tempo space. Rammelkamp Foto

There’s a new restaurant in the old Tempo space on the corner of Water Street and Fifth Street SE. It’s fittingly called Water Street, and, according to Ashley Sieg Williams, a trained chef who runs the front of the house, it’s not a rebranding of Tempo—it’s an entirely new restaurant.

Williams says she and chef Brice Cunningham—who will lead the Water Street kitchen—decided to leave Tempo behind because “it was time to change into something else.”

Water Street, which opens this weekend, will offer small and large plates, plus beer, wine and cocktails, all served in an upscale casual setting.

Gone are the cow-print couches and the water buffalo head watching over the bar; in their place are soft blue-gray benches, white orchids, Moroccan pendant lamps and mirrors galore.

The food menu will change often, says Williams, likely every two weeks. It’s “elegant, inventive but approachable food,” she says. It has elements of both French and American cuisine and aims to “show some new, fun flavors that [people] haven’t seen in Charlottesville,” Williams says, such as the charred Spanish octopus with fava bean salad. Other small plates ($5-12) include Israeli couscous with Italian tuna salad, roasted baby carrots with thyme and chardonnay, and pork rillettes with an Albemarle Baking Company baguette and cornichons.

Large plates, such as lamb shank with sautéed spinach, salmon filet or flank steak with mint and chili, are also on the menu for about $20 each.

And Williams is particularly excited about the wine program, which offers featured wines for $8 per glass and $30 per bottle. The idea is to encourage people to choose a wine based on their own tastes and interests, not by price point. The restaurant does have an extensive wine list separate from the menu, though it comes with a heftier price tag.

The Cheers of Charlottesville

After 10 years of pouring pints, Tuesday trivia nights, flip cup leagues and St. Paddy’s Day parties, McGrady’s Irish Pub will close after its grand finale party on Saturday, September 25.

“It will be McGrady’s no more,” says manager Tracy Tuttle, who started working at the bar as a bouncer on St. Patrick’s Day 2006.

Tuttle says the pub’s original owners have returned and plan on completely remodeling the space. Although the restaurant’s concept has been chosen, he can’t reveal it yet.

One thing Tuttle will miss: the always unpredictable St. Patrick’s Day parties. “You never knew what was going to happen. That was fun,” he says.

Wait staff and bartenders from the last 10 years will return to serve that final night, and from 1-5pm the bar will hold a silent auction for its wall hangings; half of the proceeds will be donated to Red Shoe Cville.

Beer fest date changes

Originally scheduled for Saturday, September 24, the Top of the Hops Beer Festival will now take place on Saturday, November 5, still at the Sprint Pavilion on the Downtown Mall. All tickets purchased for the September 24 event will be honored for the November date.

Contact Erin O’Hare at eatdrink@c-ville.com.

Categories
Arts

Gold Connections’ future looks bright

Will Marsh’s indie-rock project, Gold Connections, has two releases slated for 2017. Photo by Mike Bottorff

A couple of years ago, while home on winter break from the College of William & Mary, Will Marsh found himself feeling overwhelmed by thoughts that drift, and often race, through young minds. Marsh was studying English, playing in a few bands on campus and worried about choosing a path—the right path—then facing the consequences of his choice.

He knew he wasn’t alone in this, but he couldn’t find solace in any of the music in his collection, so he picked up his guitar. “It’s cool when you listen to a song and it totally feels like how you’re feeling in that moment,” he says. “But oftentimes there aren’t those songs, so I write my own songs for my own moments.”

The result was “Icarus,” the latest single from Marsh’s music project, Gold Connections.

“I didn’t mean to fall apart / to break my own heart to crumble. / But look at me, take a look at me. / And I didn’t mean to let it all go / To let it all fall down like Icarus / We’ll take a look and see,” Marsh begins, singing over chunky, strummed chords. As he considers his future, he can’t help but think of Icarus, the mythical figure who flew too close to the sun on wax-and-feather wings and fell to his death.

“Icarus” is about taking a risk, Marsh says. It’s about his choice to pursue music and the lifestyle that comes with it. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if your wings are made of feather, bone and sinew or wax and worry; it’s hard to know how close the sun is.

This outward profession of anxiety is the root of what Marsh believes is a new moment in indie music, a moment defined by a feeling of emotional realism. “It’s not authentic in that back-to-nature-having-a-beard authentic” way, he says. “We’re talking about how it feels to live in 2016, actually talking about it in our songs.”

“Get back to rock ’n’ roll,” he sings in refrain at “Icarus’” end, a mantra reminding himself to get back to basics, do what he wants to do. Get back to rock ’n’ roll, and everything will be okay.

Marsh graduated from William & Mary in spring 2015 and came to Charlottesville, the place where some of his favorite bands, including Pavement, Silver Jews and Sparklehorse, lived, wrote and played music more than 20 years ago. “There’s a music tradition in Charlottesville that I resonate with,” Marsh says. These guys represent “a different way,” a more alternative tradition not just for Charlottesville music, but for music in general.

Back in January, Marsh worked with Daniel Levi Goans of Lowland Hum on the full-length Gold Connections record, Popular Fiction, that ultimately put him on the fast track to success.

Marsh sent the record to Mark Keefe, general manager and program director at local radio station WNRN, who says he listens to around 50 new full albums each month and always makes an effort to listen to local music. Keefe was stunned when he heard the record and immediately gave it to the station’s music director to put it on-air.

“It struck me,” says Keefe. “It hit a nerve. I remember the first time I heard Pavement.” It was an indescribable feeling, but a distinct feeling, he says. Gold Connections struck him in the same way. “Whatever that sound is, he’s got it down,” Keefe says of Marsh.

Keefe played the record for former WNRN colleague and independent music promoter Ronda Chollock, who sent it to a few indie labels. One well-established label (to be officially announced soon) jumped to sign Gold Connections. 

“It does not happen like this,” Keefe says. “There are people out there who make really good music for years and don’t make a break like this.”

In early 2017, the label will release a basement tapes-type EP of the Gold Connections’ songs that Marsh wrote in his William & Mary days. Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo, Marsh’s good friend, former classmate and former bandmate (the two Wills played in each other’s bands), produced the sessions years ago and is currently mixing the tracks.

Sometime after the EP release, they’ll release the full album—the disc that got the band signed in the first place—which was originally scheduled to drop this month.

Marsh and his touring bandmates, bassist Noah Rosner and drummer Patrick Haggerty, are currently playing big venues like the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and opening for Car Seat Headrest, rising indie-music megastars, at The National in Richmond. Technically, those venues, with their big sound systems and stage crews, are a dream. But Marsh really wants to play house shows and DIY venues.

“House shows are, in my opinion, the best way to start an immediate relationship with people, because you’re right there in a small room,” he says. “They’re pretty uplifting to use as performers, too, because of the house show ethos,” where Marsh sings just an arm’s length away from a crowd of people that likely shares his anxieties about growing up, making major decisions and figuring themselves out.

“I came back home to sweat it out / To let it all go but you were right there / Like a phantom in the memory / Staring back at me,” Marsh sings in “Icarus.” The big difference now that he’s gotten back to rock ’n’ roll is he’s staring his fears straight in the eye—and looking ahead to the future.

Contact Erin O’Hare at arts@c-ville.com.